Illegal Abstraction: A Single Author asks viewers to experience geometric forms—lines, grids, curves, optical illusions—and light as a way of seeing hidden histories in architectural space. Interested in how built and natural environments express power and how people negotiate freedom in unfamiliar terrain, artist Torkwase Dyson illuminates invisible stories by placing viewers in dialogue with her objects, history and the present. Her abstract sculptures, paintings and drawings consider the lives of Anthony Burns, Henry “Box” Brown, and Harriet Jacobs as 19th-century individuals who hid in architectural spaces—ship hulls (Burns), a shipping crate (Brown) and an attic crawl space (Jacobs)—on the path from enslavement to freedom. Dyson’s work explores how architecture participates in and resists freedom to revision of how Burns, Brown and Jacobs exchanged ownership for self-liberation and covert political action.

Torkwase Dyson lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Read more about her and her work here.

Performance: Thursday, January 19, 2017, 6:00 – 8:00pm
New York-based performance artist, Zachary Fabri will create new live work to interact with Dyson’s installation, Illegal Abstraction.

1700 L Street is a project space for temporary art installations located at the corner of 17th and L Streets in downtown Washington, DC. All installations are viewable 24/7 from the street. Previous projects include Cushner @ 1700 L, Workingman Collective: Satellite, Julie Wolfe: Green Room, Cosmic Modules by PLAKOOKEE, and SYNTH SERIES 005: REVERB by TOKI.

Presented by HEMPHILL @1700L. This project is supported by The Lenkin Company.

Follow @torkwasedyson and @hemphillfinearts on Instagram

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1700L Street is a project space for temporary art installations located at the corner of 17th and L Streets in downtown Washington, DC. All installations are viewable 24/7 from the street. Previous projects include Cushner @ 1700L, Workingman Collective: Satellite, Julie Wolfe: Green Room, Cosmic Modules by Plakookee, and SYNTH SERIES 005: REVERB by TOKI.